


Battered.

by mypetersburg



Category: Anastasia (1997), Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-07 16:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16857667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mypetersburg/pseuds/mypetersburg
Summary: Dmitry's battered brown case was once his father's.A short little work centered around Dmitry's suitcase. Anya/Dmitry is a sort of subplot until the middle-ish.





	Battered.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I thought writing about an inanimate object as the center of a story was a fun idea! I have some other ideas planned for stories like this one. Let me know if you'd like to see more!

Dmitry’s battered brown case was given to him by his father. It may not look pretty, but it is sturdy enough- durable enough to sit on and big enough to fit all of his clothes, with two shiny clasps and a strong handle. Dmitry doesn’t love it, because he thinks becoming attached to a trivial object such as a case is stupid, but he keeps it. It was his father’s, after all. There is no way in hell that he’ll get rid of it. So, it resides in the corner of the bedroom he sleeps in at the Yusupov Palace, safe and unbothered, the inside packed with his (few) other items of clothing and his father’s wrist watch that he takes off at night, lest he break it in his sleep. Another item of his father’s he cannot bare to damage. And there the case resides, until a red-head with eyes that are far too blue comes wandering into the palace, and Dmitry packs the case yet again to go on a dangerous, stupid adventure.

\----

The case goes through a lot on that treacherous trip to Paris. It is kicked around in the train cabin, used as a footrest for Dmitry’s large feet and muddied shoes, grasped too violently and then launched off of a train. Vlad is the one who yanks it out of the muddy snow, while Dmitry rushes to check on Anya, who is moaning and groaning that her arm hurts. She turns out just fine, and Vlad practically hurls the battered case at Dmitry, who catches it and stops himself before he can protectively cradle it to his chest, because it’s just a case and it’s not like his father’s _soul_ is in it, for Christ’s sake.

\----

When they arrive in Paris, Dmitry clutches the leather handle of the case a bit too tightly, palms sweaty and hands shaky. They are here, and if he is lucky, he will never have to pack this stupid case again and he will be able to stay _here_ , with the case stowed away somewhere in his closet. (He knows, even if he does stay, that he won’t be shoving the case in his closet. It will stay in plain sight, so he can keep an eye on it, just to make sure it doesn’t get any more battered- _not_ because it makes it feel like his father is in the room.) So, he carries his father’s case to a fancy Paris hotel and sets it gently down on his bed in the room he shares with Vlad, laughing and slapping the top of the case, pretending like he is clapping his father on the shoulder. And he suddenly feels very stupid, so he takes the case off of the bed and puts it in the chair, resorting not to look at again, because he never really has been one for material objects, including this stupid battered brown case.

\----

The night of the ballet, Dmitry picks the case up off the chair and snaps open its shiny clasps, beginning to roughly pack his clothes into it. How could he be so _stupid_ , falling in love with and lying to someone who is no doubt the Grand Duchess? Anastasia Romanov. The name feels bitter in his mouth when he snarls it at the case, snaps his feelings and barks his affections. He is a mess, and the case is his confidant, and even this is not the stupidest thing he’s done tonight, ranting and spilling love confessions to a sturdy, spacious _suitcase_. No, the stupidest thing he has done is stomping on the train of the Dowager’s dress. He really is the biggest idiot who’s ever lived. So, now he and his trusted case must run far, far from Paris. Perhaps he’ll return to Russia. Or perhaps he’ll go to Italy. Either way, there is no way he can stay here. He _knows_ , not matter what the Dowager chooses to believe, that his Anya is Russia’s Anastasia, and for that he must go, for he cannot stay in a place where she is without his heart breaking with every breath he takes.

\----

The Dowager calls him to her study, and he decides he truly must go. He turns down the money, wishes Anastasia a wonderful new life (in his head, just in case any staff are lurking about), and returns to the hotel. He had asked the doorman to hold his case, and the doorman had listened. Dmitry thanks him, tosses him a few coins, and then takes the battered brown case by the handle and sets off for the train station.

He takes the long way there, partly because he gets lost, and partly because he wants to stay in Paris for a bit longer. He is lingering on the Pont Alexandre III, thinking about what things could have been, and then sighs. The sun is going down, and he’d like to see one more sunset in Paris. Trains are always departing. What if five more minutes to see nature’s beauty?

He sets his case down and sits on it, watching the sun until he hears the clacking of heels and throat clearing behind him and she turns, and Anya (no, she is _Anastasia_ now) stands there, in the most beautiful gown he has ever seen, rolling her lipstick-covered bottom lip between her teeth.

“Dmitry.” she says, and it is too much to bear. He simply can’t do this.

“If you ever see me from a carriage again, don’t wave, don’t smile.” he snaps, before he can stop himself, and then his voice softens, “I don’t want to be in love with someone I can’t have for the rest of my life.”

She is silent, face frozen with hurt, and he stands, bending to grasp the case and then bowing to her, to the Grand Duchess.

“Your Majesty.” he says, and begins to turn away when suddenly she is chasing him, calling him Dima and yanking his father’s case out of his hands and slamming it down on the ground. He’s too frozen with shock to shout at her to be careful, to treat his things with respect, because suddenly she is stepping onto the case to stand on it so she is level with him and grabbing him by the face to press her lips to his.

She is kissing him, standing right there atop his father’s battered, stupidly wonderful case.

He kisses her back and thanks his lucky stars, and wonders how his father would feel to see the case being used as Anya’s stool (he decides that he would chuckle warmly and clap Dmitry on the shoulder, smiling at the picture of true love).

\----

Anya and Dmitry buy an apartment in Lyon, wanting to stay in France, and Dmitry unpacks his case on their first night living there, putting clothes in the closet, smiling every time his hand brushes the simple white dress she wore when they married. When he is finished unpacking, he glances at the case, sitting on the bed, and then to the empty shelf in the closet. The shelf is the perfect size for the suitcase, but he shakes his head to an empty room and sets it on the armchair in the corner, instead, where he can see it from their bed. When Anya comes into the room, later, to fetch a sweater, she calls to him in the kitchen.

“Do you want me to put this suitcase away?” she asks, and he shakes his head as he comes to a stop in the doorway.

He is grinning when he tells her to leave it out.

\----

Dmitry glances at the wonderful, battered brown case each night before he falls asleep and see its first thing every morning. He loves it, this old case with the shiny clasps and leather handle. It is the case that his father owned. It is the case he hurled off of a train without second thought. It is the case that he packed and bitterly announced his feeling for Anya to. It is the case that Anya stood on when she kissed him.

It is, save for his Father’s watch, his wedding ring, and the picture of him and Anya at their wedding, his favorite possession.

And he is happy with that.


End file.
